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Series B – Epiphany – Sunday, January 7, 2018 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:29	the holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew Chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.
0:34	now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king behold wise men from the East came to
0:42	Jerusalem saying where is he who has been born the king of the Jews for we saw his star when it Rose and have come
0:48	to worship him when Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief
0:55	priests and the scribes of the people he inquired of them were the Christ the Messiah was to be born
1:02	they told him in Bethlehem of Judea for so it was written by the prophet and Jew
1:07	o Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah and from you shall come a ruler who will
1:14	Shepherd My People Israel then Herod summon the wise men and secretly
1:20	ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search
1:25	diligently for the child and when you have found him bring me word that I too may come and worship him after listening
1:33	to the king they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it Rose went before them until it came
1:39	to rest over the place where the child was when they saw the star they rejoiced
1:45	exceedingly with great joy and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and
1:51	worshiped him then opening their Treasures they offered him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh and being
1:57	warned in a dream not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way this is the gospel of the
2:03	Lord in the name of Jesus all right do you guys remember the four
2:09	blood moons scare boy that was a close one we nearly didn’t make it through that one and of course you you remember
2:14	during the four blood moons I mean there was the shemitah thing going on and all of the people who were looking up into
2:21	the heavens and wondering what the blood moons meant those are the same people who this past year actually the year in
2:27	2017. in September told us that there was a great sign that was to appear in
2:33	the Stars Jupiter had spent a whole bunch of time in the womb of the
2:39	constellation Virgo and was about to be born and they said that this was assigned to the Earth that it was going
2:45	to be shakings things were going to be toppled over this was going to be the thing that everybody would recognize as
2:52	something spectacular something ominous something well that’s the thing it’s always something but you never know
2:59	exactly what the something is now I would say this to those who do
3:05	such things and that is is that they have rightly understood that God has
3:11	created stars and the Sun and the Moon for the well for times and seasons and
3:19	things like that if you would turn back with me into the Book of Genesis chapter
3:25	one I would like to show you something here and we’ll pay attention to what’s going on
3:31	here’s what it says Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. and we’ll do a little work here
3:37	wonderful sentence in the Hebrew Elohim
3:43	in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and see this is the big
3:49	thing there’s a beginning before there was a beginning what was there there was only eternity and don’t ask me how that
3:56	works because I well you and I we live in a time and space continuum you things
4:02	start things end and so that’s the thing the fact that there was a beginning is a big deal because before there was a
4:09	beginning there wasn’t a beginning there was only just eternity and how does that work I again no clue
4:15	but in the beginning God created the heavens of the earth the earth was without form and void Darkness was over
4:21	the face of the to home over the deep and the spirit of God was hovering brooding over the face of the waters
4:29	here we see the holy spirit’s first appearance like a bird if you would because the word hovering is this
4:36	birding term like a mother hen brooding over her eggs and God saw God said let
4:44	there be light and there was light God saw that the light was good God
4:49	separated the light from the darkness God called the light day and the Darkness he called night and
4:56	there was evening and there was morning the first day God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and
5:03	let it separate Waters from the waters and God made the expanse the rakia and
5:09	separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse and it was so
5:15	God called the expanse heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day God
5:23	said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear and it was so God called
5:31	the dry land Earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good and God
5:38	said let the Earth Sprout vegetation plants yielding seed fruit trees bearing
5:43	fruit in which there is seed each according to its kind on the earth and it was so the Earth brought forth
5:51	vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds trees bearing fruits in which is their seed
5:57	each according to its kind and God saw it was good and there was evening and there was
6:02	morning the third day now you’ll note vegetation pops up before the even the
6:07	sun is created so of course you know plants need light to do the photosynthesis thing we
6:14	all learned this in grade school right so how is it that these plants are doing
6:20	these things remember God said let there be light God turn the lights on it’s as if his glory is a thing that is
6:26	Illuminating this creation that he has made and the reason why it is like that is because that’s exactly what’s going
6:32	on and then God said let there be light in the expanse of the
6:41	heavens in the rakia of the Heavens to separate the day from the night let them
6:49	be watch for signs and for seasons for
6:54	days and for years let them be lights in the expanse of the
6:59	Heavens to give light upon the Earth and it was so God made the two great lights the greater light to Rule the Day the
7:06	Lesser light to rule the night and the Stars and God set them in the expanse of the
7:12	Heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and the night and
7:17	listen to separate the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was
7:23	mourning the fourth day you’ll note that God specifically gave sun and moon and
7:30	the stars to separate light from darkness and to
7:37	serve as signs ah so take that whole blood moon stuff
7:42	and all the things you were feeling about how important it was disconnected for the four blood moons
7:47	throw it on to this star that shows up in our gospel text this is the sign of
7:54	signs this is a star that separates light from Darkness even to this day it
8:01	is still doing so so with that we return to Our Gospel text that’s all kind of
8:07	frame and we come to that wonderful wonderful passage of scripture talking to us about the visit of the wise men
8:14	the Magi now important to note today we are recognizing what is called Epiphany
8:19	and it’s a celebration in the church but a lot of people sit there and go what exactly are we celebrating right are we
8:26	celebrating that three wise dudes showed up and gave Jesus gifts what’s the celebration about answer the celebration
8:34	is that now God has manifested himself in the flesh not merely to Jews
8:42	but to Gentiles see this is the first manifestation of the Salvation of God in
8:49	Jesus Christ to All Nations the Magi and the people who were with them they are
8:56	the first fruits of the Believers of the Gentiles and it’s a big deal you see
9:01	when Jesus is born the Angels show up and they show up to Jewish Shepherds out in Bethlehem to tell them about the sign
9:08	the baby who’s been born to them Christ the lord who’s Emmanuel God With Us come
9:14	to save us and what do they do they go and they worship Him
9:20	so here now not Jews but Gentiles are
9:26	showing up to worship their savior I don’t know about you but when I was a young kid I would first read the Bible
9:32	you know I always thought man I wish I was Jewish because it’s like you know
9:38	they’ve got this great heritage this amazing Heritage God has worked through these people throughout the Millennia of
9:46	human history and it’s through them that the Messiah has come to us and I always
9:51	felt like I was kind of getting left out you know and plus the church I went to really didn’t quite understand how
9:57	things work as far as who is Israel and who isn’t and so they would always talk about the people who are currently
10:03	living in Jerusalem and in Israel today in the established re-established nation of
10:09	Israel today as if somehow they are the people of God despite the fact that they
10:14	reject Jesus as Messiah it never really made any sense to me how you know how that thing but then you realize
10:20	scripture as you read it that every Gentile Norwegian or German doesn’t
10:27	matter every Gentile who trusts in Jesus Christ is grafted into Israel so
10:34	congratulations you are all now Hebrews he grafted in that’s the idea so but the
10:41	first fruits don’t do it Mike I know what you were going to do if you look like you’re about to say
10:47	something Jewish muzzle Tov it’s kind of scary that I knew you were
10:53	thinking that so in our text today we are celebrating the revealing of the
11:00	mystery of Ages that it’s not just Jews but Gentiles people from all tribes all
11:07	languages All Nations who are going to be Believers in Jesus Christ so we
11:13	return to Our Gospel text and here’s what it says now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod
11:19	the king behold wise men from the East came to Jerusalem best guests these are
11:24	fellows who are coming from the area that was formerly known as Babylon and
11:30	how they knew that this star had something to do with the king of the Jews the the best that we can come up
11:36	with well this has to do with the heritage of Daniel Daniel and so the the Jews spent time 70
11:45	years in Exile in Babylon and left an indelible impression and Daniel was kind
11:50	of the the top of the wise men of Babylon of the day and Lord was truly with them and so we don’t exactly know
11:57	by what mysterious Arts they figured this out but here’s the thing they knew
12:03	that the Stars serve as a sign and so they have found this star that is
12:09	serving as the quintessential star sign of all of human history and like I said
12:15	this star is separating light from Darkness Even in our text so it says so
12:21	they came to Jerusalem and they were saying where is he who is Born the king of the Jews for we saw his star when it
12:27	Rose and we have come to worship him huh so when Herod the king heard this he was
12:36	troubled and all Jerusalem with him now a little bit of a pause here let’s take
12:42	a look at our text from Isaiah Isaiah chapter 60. I want to note something here over and again the way tradition
12:50	works we think that there were three guys on camels and they show up in
12:56	Jerusalem no no no no no no the reason why we think that way is because there
13:01	were three gifts gold frankincense myrrh and in our sermon text our sermon hymn today we actually saw the significance
13:09	of each of the gifts King God sacrifice you know gold frankincense myrrh gold
13:15	recognizing that Jesus is a king frankincense that incense that’s burned
13:20	reminds us of those psalms that says let our prayers rise before you God as
13:27	incense the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice and so the prayers
13:32	of the instance rising up well that shows that Jesus is God but myrrh that’s that strange one that’s that weird one
13:39	that’s kind of an outlier think of it the best way you could put it is it’s the old world’s version of embalming
13:44	fluid which is a strange thing to give to a newborn kid but there it is nonetheless so because
13:51	of the three gifts people have now think there’s three wise men and they’ve even kind of come up with names for them you
13:57	know belches are some weird names like this you know okay think of it this way
14:03	Herod was such an insane power controlling Maniac if three dudes show
14:09	up on camels wearing turbans and looking for a king to worship he’d probably
14:14	would have killed them but the book of Isaiah The Prophecy from our Old Testament text explains to us in graphic
14:22	detail that this was quite the Entourage let me show you Isaiah 60. let’s read it
14:28	out in all six verses arise Shine for your light has come
14:34	the glory of Yahweh has arisen upon you behold Darkness shall cover the Earth
14:39	and thick Darkness the peoples or the Nations and this is the darkness of our sin but Yahweh will arise upon you his
14:46	glory will be seen upon you wonderful veiled reference here promised to us
14:53	being clothed in the righteousness of Christ you see in the Book of Revelation it
14:58	talks about how when this is all said and done that the Saints themselves will shine like the sun
15:07	he’s thinking how is that possible well when you’re decked out in the righteous
15:13	garments of Salvation the righteousness of Christ this the glory of the Lord is now seen
15:19	upon you and so the Nations shall come to your light Kings to the brightness of
15:25	your Rising lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together they come to you your sons shall come from
15:32	afar your daughters shall be carried on the hip and then you shall see and be
15:37	radiant and your heart shall thrill and exult because the abundance of the sea
15:43	shall be turned to you the wealth of the Nations shall come to you and then watch this verse 6 a multitude of camels shall
15:51	cover you the young camels of Midian and IFA all those from Sheba shall come they
15:57	shall bring gold frankincense and shall bring good news and the Praises of the
16:03	Lord ah a multitude of camels so remember it
16:08	says in Our Gospel text that the people there in Jerusalem they were all troubled that everyone’s talking about
16:14	the city was buzzing when these guys show up why because we’re talking like a
16:19	small army if you would a brigade maybe a regiment have come and there are is a
16:25	multitude of camels and notice the explicit prophecy two of the gifts are prophesied by Isaiah by name
16:33	two of them by name and you’re going to note here that it says of those who
16:39	would come that they would sing the Praises of Yahweh
16:44	they come because they see the sign the star
16:49	and they end up worshiping and believing in Jesus these are the first fruits of
16:55	the Gentiles so with that in mind you can see what’s going on and it’s rather interesting because the text says in Our
17:02	Gospel text we return now it says we saw his star when it Rose and we’ve come to
17:08	and what’s fascinating here is the Greek word for that’s translated is worship could literally be translated as come
17:16	down to honor him and the way the old world people would honor is to basically
17:22	Honor by bowing down to their face to the ground but see one implies
17:28	honoring the other implies worship it’s the same word so how do you know which
17:34	one it is are they Believers or not well what did Isaiah say
17:39	you see Isaiah tells us that this Greek word must be interpreted as worship
17:46	because it was prophesied of the ones who bring the gift that they will sing the Praises of the Lord and that only
17:52	comes through faith and so they are the first Gentile
17:57	Believers in Jesus first fruits of that group so when Herod the king heard this
18:03	he was troubled in all Jerusalem with them and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people he inquired of them where the Christ was to
18:11	be born now it’s fascinating that Herod didn’t know now we can understand that the Magi wouldn’t know because you see
18:18	this was a mystery that had been covered up veiled until now and now the covering is
18:26	coming off you think of you know I’m a kind of an Apple guy you know I
18:32	mean by technology like you know I’ve got an iPad and an iPhone and an iMac and you know pretty much all the Apple
18:38	stuff but every single year they have these big events where Apple announced
18:44	this and reveals the new technology that they’re working on like the iPhone 72
18:51	you know whatever you know what are they up to now the iPhone x but you get the idea and it’s a big deal and people from
18:57	around the world tune into the to the internet stream broadcast to see it and of course in the months and weeks
19:04	leading up to the big announcement of the big new thing there’s always leaks
19:09	you know somebody’s on the production line in China has taken a surreptitious photograph of what the new thing is
19:15	supposed to look like at least here’s a component part so we think the new phone’s gonna do this or that or whatever so but it’s all under wraps
19:22	until the big Revelation that’s what’s happening here God is pulling back
19:30	the curtain pulling back the cover so that all the world can see this mystery
19:36	that has been hidden from the foundation of the earth is now being revealed to the whole world move aside Apple this is
19:44	bigger than that so where is he used to be going the king of the Jews he doesn’t know where they are going to be this guy
19:51	is Herod as a king and Israel doesn’t know where the Messiah is to be worn so they told him all right he’s going to be
19:56	born in Bethlehem of Judea for it is written by the prophet and Jew o Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no
20:02	means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will
20:07	Shepherd My People Israel ah look at that the Messiah comes from the city of
20:14	David and like David he too is also a shepherd and now you can see the type
20:20	and Shadow between David and Jesus it’s beautiful you and Herod summoned the wise men secretly he ascertained from
20:27	them what time the star had appeared he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when
20:33	you have found him bring me word that I too may come and worship him
20:38	liar that’s not what he’s up to but that’s not the point of our sermon today so after listening to the king they went
20:45	on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it Rose went
20:52	before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was that is
20:58	some star I don’t know any stars that behave like this and yet this star this is the sign the sign of the new season
21:05	the sign now of the day of God’s salvation today is the day of salvation
21:11	this star signaled the beginning of this day the day when every sinner who calls
21:20	on the name of the Lord will be saved even though your sins be a Scarlet
21:27	this Jesus that they are worshiping because of his sacrifice for your sins
21:34	he will wash away your scarlet sins and robe you in the radiant bright white
21:39	righteousness of his own forgiving and pardoning today is the day of salvation
21:44	here is the revealing of this mystery to the Nations so they come the star leads
21:51	them right to Jesus’s house and they rejoiced exceedingly with great
21:56	joy going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother
22:01	and they fell down and they worshiped him
22:07	God calling the Nations to himself and look at this their faith then
22:15	already begins producing good works so then opening their Treasures
22:22	they offered him gifts gold frankincense and that really strange one myrrh
22:30	myrrh which again points to this fat the fact that Jesus is going to bleed and die for
22:36	them it’s about preparing him already now for his death and so they then being warned in a dream
22:43	not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way now to
22:49	help us understand the revealing of the mystery that we just looked at I’d like to take a look at another text and
22:54	that’s our epistle text today if you would turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 3. and I’m going to
23:00	read a little bit past what is in our epistle text because it’s fantastic what Paul is doing here
23:06	so Paul in Ephesians 3 says this for this reason I Paul a prisoner of
23:12	Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles assuming that you’ve heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was
23:20	given to me for you important to note here Paul does not consider him to be a
23:25	steward of God’s law he is a steward of God’s grace you see we have the law in Moses but see
23:33	something new is happening so how the mystery was made known to me by
23:38	Revelation as I have written briefly so notice he’s talking here in terms of
23:44	mystery and a mystery that is being revealed when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of
23:50	Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other Generations as it
23:55	has now been revealed to His Holy Apostles and the prophets by the spirit so you see this great mystery is now
24:03	being made known whereas people in the ancient world before Christ
24:08	had no concept of this mystery it was kept from them but to us it has been revealed and here’s the mystery that the
24:16	Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise
24:25	in Christ through Christ Jesus Through The Gospel the mystery is that now all people of
24:34	all Nations who trust and call upon the name of the Lord will be saved and they
24:40	are all heirs together wow we are all the people of God
24:48	so of this good news of this gospel I was made a minister according to the
24:54	gifts of God’s grace which was given to me by the working of his power to me though I am the very least of all the
25:01	saints this Grace was given to preach to the Gentiles The unsearchable Riches of
25:07	Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery
25:12	hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church the
25:18	manifold or you can say multi-dimensional or poly dimensional
25:23	wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the
25:29	Heavenly places this was according to the Eternal Eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our lord in
25:36	whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him so I
25:43	ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you which is your glory now note here Paul references boldness
25:52	and confidence through faith and I’ll say this if you’ve ever sat under
25:57	preaching that only sounds like that really kind of tune that is a broken
26:02	tune that goes like this
26:11	yeah how much law can you get well we’ll give you some more law on top of that if
26:17	all you’re hearing is law law and you gotta you gotta you gotta does that
26:22	create boldness and confidence that you have a right standing before God you know and the reason why is because God’s
26:29	law is always condemning us always pointing out where we fall short so la la la la la la doesn’t create confidence
26:36	at all it creates Terror creates fear but notice Paul is a steward of God’s
26:43	grace a steward and a minister of the good news and what is the good news the Christ has bled and died for our sins in
26:50	accordance with the scripture that he was raised on the third day for our justification and that God was in Christ
26:56	reconciling the world to himself you see the Forgiveness of sins in God’s grace and the free gift of Mercy
27:04	that we have in Jesus gives us boldness and confidence
27:10	you talk that way sometime with somebody who’s not so sure whether or not they have a right relationship with God and
27:17	they if they ask you how you’re doing you basically say I couldn’t be better me and God we’re tight I have absolute
27:22	confidence that I am saved I’m redeemed and I cannot wait to see Jesus they might actually say to you whoa you’re
27:30	kind of getting a little uppity there slow down how could you be so sure
27:36	in fact nowadays in many churches doubt is kind of considered to be a the in thing
27:42	you see Paul here is talking about boldness and confidence and that only comes to the cross and through Jesus so
27:49	I ask you not to lose heart over what I’m suffering Paul says and then comes something rather fascinating will end
27:55	with this thought have you ever read in the prophet Ezekiel that portion where
28:00	Ezekiel is told to kind of go and measure out the temple complex and ever scratched your head and said what’s that
28:06	about a similar thing occurs in the Book of Revelation again this kind of measuring off of things
28:13	you go what is that all about it always has to do with the temple well I like to think of it this way that the
28:19	Fulfillment is found here in this text the next verses and I’ll show you what I mean for this reason Paul then says I
28:27	bow my knees before the father just like the Magi did before Jesus says from whom
28:34	every family in heaven on Earth is named that according to the riches of his glory that he may Grant you to be
28:39	strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through
28:45	faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to listen to this comprehend with all the saints what
28:53	is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
29:01	that you may be filled with all the fullness of God so think of it this way this mystery that has been made known in
29:10	Christ not just to the Jewish Nation but now to All Nations starting with the
29:15	Magi this mystery that is Christ God invites you to now sit down and like
29:23	Ezekiel and like the Apostle of John see if you can measure it out
29:30	can you measure the love of Christ for you tell me what is its breath
29:37	what is the breath or the length or the depth of the love of Jesus for you
29:44	tough to measure you see God demonstrates his great love
29:49	for you that even when you were a sinner and at your worst Christ died for your sins
29:57	God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
30:05	that whosoever believes in him will not perish
30:11	that have eternal life do you comprehend the breath the length
30:19	the height and the depth of this great love for you in Christ
30:27	this is the next mystery if you would good luck figuring it out and yet you
30:34	are invited to sit and start to comprehend and noodle this out
30:41	but it is great news so let us this day because of the great love that God has
30:47	for us with the great revealing of the Salvation that has come to the whole world that every peoples every tribe
30:57	language nation that God is calling them like the Magi from the East calling them
31:03	to now come and worship Jesus Christ the mystery
31:09	held back and now revealed to All Nations including our nation today
31:15	let us comprehend with all the saints the breath the length and the height and the depth of Christ and led us to
31:22	worship our wonderful loving kind savior
31:27	who has given us the greatest gift that we could ever receive the gift of himself the gift of reconciliation with
31:34	God the gift of eternal life in the name of Jesus Amen

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